It is a common case that a lot of widening stitches are formed at a time in a region and then a knitted fabric starts knitting with that region as a set up portion. FIG. 1 shows seamless knitwear knitted in a tubular form, showing a tights 27, a sweater 1 and a tank top 28. In the diagram, arrows indicate knitting directions of the respective knitted fabrics. The tights 27 starts knitting at ankles and ends at a waist. The sweater 1, which is knitted in a direction opposite to the normal knitwear, starts at a shoulder and ends at a hem. The tank top 28 starts knitting at a hem toward a shoulder. At a set up portion S of a crotch in the tights 27, of a shoulder 5 in the sweater 1, or of a side area 29 in the tank top 28 extending to a shoulder strap where widening stitches are overlapped with stitches of a body in an orientation orthogonal to the stitches of the body, the widening stitches are formed to increase a knitting width of the knitted fabric at a stroke. The applicant previously proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 3-75656 a method of knitting a tubular knitwear having a rib knitting by a two-bed flat knitting machine.
Referring to FIG. 6, there is shown conventional knitting steps for a right shoulder part 5 of the sweater 1 formed as the set up portion S of the sweater. The sweater 1 is knitted to be symmetrical with respect to a center line of a neckline 3. In FIG. 6, numeric characters on the left side denote the knitting steps, and laterally-oriented arrows adjacent to the numeric characters denote yarn feeding directions. “FB” denotes a front needle bed and “BB” denotes a back needle bed. Alphabets at the bottom denote needles, capital letters A, B, C, . . . denoting needles used for knitting a front body 7 of a body knitted in a tubular form and small letters a, b, c, . . . denoting those used for knitting a back body 9. For convenience of explanation, an even fewer number of needles is illustrated.
The steps 1, 2 illustrate the knitting of the neckline 3. In the step 1, a yarn feeder 111 is racked rightwards to feed the yarn to the needles A, B of the front needle bed. In the next step 2, the yarn feeder 111 is racked leftwards to feed the yarn to the needles b, a. These knitting steps are repeatedly taken to form a neckline opening 4. In the step 3, a course knitting of the neckline of the front body 7 is performed in the same manner as in the step 1, while however the yarn 113 is fed in a zigzag from the needle C. That is to say, the yarn 113 is fed zigzag to the needle C of the front needle bed, the needle c of the back needle bed, the needle D of the front needle bed, and the needle c of the back needle bed, . . . to be hooked on those needles, so as to form a set up course 115 of the right shoulder part. The knitting steps 4, 5 illustrate the knitting of the course next to the loops formed in the step 3. In the step 4, a stitch course 116 of the front body 7 including the neckline is knitted with needles of the front needle bed. In the step 5, a stitch course 117 of the back body 9 corresponding to the stitch course 116 of the front body 7 is knitted. In a region bridging between the steps 4 and 5 depicted by a broken line, stitches of a set up portion of a left shoulder part are formed in the same manner as in the part mentioned above, though not illustrated.
In the steps 3-5, the set up portion is knitted while the stitches are reduced in size. After the set up portion S thus knitted, the knitting illustrated in the steps 6, 7 is repeatedly performed with a desired stitch size, thereby knitting the body having a tubular structure of the front body 7 and the back body 9 being joined to each other at both ends thereof. FIG. 7 shows a longitudinal sectional view of the tubular knitted fabric hanging from the needle beds of the flat knitting machine. “FB” indicates the front needle bed and “BB” indicates the back needle bed.
FIG. 8 is a development viewed from the top (as viewed from a direction indicated by an arrow P of FIG. 7), showing a loop structure of the knitted fabric knitted by the knitting of FIG. 6 when spread out with the set up portion S as a center. FIG. 9 shows part of the front body of the knitted fabric folded along the set up portion S (a development viewed from a direction indicated by an arrow F of FIG. 7). As seen from these figures, each loop in the course 115 formed by the knitting yarn 113 has two side legs 115a, 115b extending in substantially parallel with each other and a relatively long distance between front and back needles. As a result of this, the knitted fabric knitted in the manner mentioned above has a loosely drooped appearance at the widening stitch part of the knitted fabric. This disfigurement cannot be modified or corrected by adjusting a stitch density (or stitch size) in the set up process.
This problem does not apply only to a knitted fabric whose front and back bodies are knitted in a double overlapped relation as a tubular fabric, but also to a knitted fabric knitted in the form of a single-layer knitted fabric, irrespective of the knitting structure, such as a plain knitting and a rib knitting.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a knitted fabric having a set up portion formed to have a less loose droop than a conventional set up portion, comprising a lot of widening stitches formed at a time for a region having no stitches.